In three days, the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover will turn into a carnival of football, with fans, reporters, players and coaches either bewildered or impressed by the throngs there to celebrate the start of the South's most popular sport.

Summer is over. Football is here.

The start of SEC Kickoff 2011 -- now almost universally known as SEC Media Days -- is Wednesday. The three-day annual event features coaches and players from each team who navigate about 1,000 media members in a hotel connected to a giant shopping mall in the suburbs.

Baseball has spring training or Opening Day. The SEC? It has Media Days.

What makes this conference's media days different than other leagues?

"You don't attend the SEC's 52-hour football overdose as much as you try to survive it," wrote Gene Wojokowski several years ago in his seminal SEC Media Days column. "The place is more crowded than a Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving."

Maybe it's because the passion of fans in the South creates celebrities of the coaches and players to a greater degree than elsewhere, so their arrival in Hoover and subsequent comments are treated with an air of importance.

Fans are another part of the SEC carnival, even though their attendance isn't necessarily encouraged -- and in some ways is actively discouraged.

League personnel are stationed at the escalators leading to the ballrooms where the interviews and press conferences take place. No fans are supposed to make it past that gauntlet. But there is always a crowd of well-wishers and autograph-seekers (usually dominated by Alabama fans) gathered in the lobby of the hotel. It's enough to make an out-of-town hotel guest wonder what bizarre convention they've just walked into. Even first-year coaches aren't always prepared for the hubbub.

Alabama coach Mike Shula's awkward debut in 2003 was marked not only by his rambling on the podium, but also his bewilderment at the throngs of aggressive Bama fans.

Because coaches are graded not only by what they say but how they say it, they generally take the day seriously, using only pre-vetted jokes and talking points and coming prepared to answer questions about whatever the curent issue of the day is. (Notable exceptions include Shula and Florida coach Ron Zook, who in his first year left the audience floored by how rapidly words tumbled out of his mouth. A year later, Zook joked about his debut and promised to speak more slowly.)

This year expect questions on player safety, special teams rules changes, 7-on-7 camps, NCAA rules violations and the resignation of Jim Tressel.

The teams are scheduled to minimize the traffic jams.

Auburn and Alabama don't usually appear on the same day. Big personalities and storylines seem to get spread evenly through the three-day event.

The one piece of news guaranteed to come out of Hoover each year is the annual media predictions. Historically, however, the predictions tend to echo the national preseason consensus rather than stake out any new ground.

Some have noted that Alabama and Auburn sometimes fare better than the consensus because of the volume of media from in-state who are more familiar with the programs, compared to the handful of reporters who are from, say, Arkansas or Kentucky.

Like any summer predictions, take the picks with some skepticism.

In the past 19 seasons, the favorite team has won only four championships. Last year, the media was like the rest of the nation in being largely caught off guard by Auburn's championship run. In the nine times an SEC school has won the national title since 1992, only two of those teams were even picked to win the league (LSU in 2007 and Florida in 2008.)

Florida coach Will Muschamp and senior quarterback John Brantley will be there on the first day. They'll be joined on the first day by South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore and receiver Alshon Jeffery.

Georgia sophomore quarterback Aaron Murray will share the spotlight with Auburn on Day 2. Auburn is the only team that will be without a senior representative this week.

On Day 3, the Alabama contingent will be the biggest draw, along with LSU senior quarterback Jordan Jefferson.

SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom said the attendance has increased gradually over the years, except for a slight decrease from 2009 to 2010. The league is credentialing more outlets, but generally fewer reporters per outlet.

Bloom said pre-registration for the event is about where it usually is -- 900 or so media members.